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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Crabs + Shrimp + Lobsters’May 20, 09 Comments Off
 burrowing-mud-crab Good evening one and all, welcome to another day in Curacao. Tonight I have another different crab for you all, not sure of his name so I am just calling him a burrowing mud crab. When the tide goes out around the bay in the area of the mangroves you will see thousands of tiny holes in the mud and each one of these holes contains one of these little crabs. This little guy here was less than half an inch and very hard to get close to. I just randomly picked a hole and set up the tripod and waited and it wasn’t long before out popped this tiny crab. You can see he was not getting to far from his safe underwater mud cave, the slightest movement sent him flying back into his hole at top speed, I was shocked at how fast they can move? Anyways just another cool crab from Curacao and found it interesting enough to photograph.
Not much else for you this evening, it was a day at work entertaining folks from the Adventure of the Sea’s cruise ship, everyone left with smiles on their faces!!
See you tomorrow, Barry
05-20-2009
May 5, 09 Comments Off
 hermit-crab-in-a-fossil-shell Good morning all, just to tired last night to get this out. We again had a very busy day at the Curacao Sea Aquarium which obviously is good for business! I did load up the dogs and took them for a fun evening hike to the ocean after work, maybe that’s what finished me off?
Here is my newest hermit crab, the one I found the morning Indi swam out to that little island and claimed it as her own, remember? When I first walked by this patch of moss sedum I saw this fossil murex just sitting there as if someone had “placed it” just for me to find, like maybe the Easter bunny? Well after grabbing it and looking inside I found out much to my disappointment that it already had an owner. These fossil shells erode out of the cliff, roll down to the waters edge, get washed in the tide for months or years and then get re-found and re-used again by these hermit crabs. I have accidentally dug these fossil shells up on many of the trails I have built over the years and each time “if I don’t bring them home” I gently tap them on a rock to get the plug of dirt out then wash them and leave them along the trail for a lucky crab to find. I had to patiently wait for this crab to come out, he was pretty scared but after five minutes or so he popped out and slowly went on his way most likely to find a cave to hind in for the rest of the day.
I have a correction on the books from Tom that I told you about yesterday, The postcard book Desert Rain, Desert Bloom is out of print. And the ISBN of the Second Edition (2004) of THE SOUTHWEST INSIDE OUT is 1879728044. There are a lot of used book dealers (including Amazon.com) pushing sales of the older 2001 edition. I did get one e-mail saying that one of you found this book at Borders and like I said it was great! Many thanks for the support guys!
I am off today, heading out to walk the dogs and take photos first then I have stuff to do around town. Have a great day, Sunny regards, Barry
05-04-2009
Apr 28, 09 Comments Off
 curacao-crab Good afternoon all, just taking a break from my busy afternoon of taking photos of Hans van Baalen. We started the day with a trip to the Curacao Naval Base. This was my first time inside and may I just say it was great! I got to see all the cool ships the Dutch Navy has including the fast little patrol boats that we see daily speeding by out in front of the Aquarium. I followed Hans around all over as he went from place to place including getting to meet and talk to some of the troops. Later we climbed aboard one of those cool little patrol boats and got a nice tour of the bay, went under the big bridge, passed by the colorful buildings of Punda and then got dropped off in Otrabanda, again it was great! We then went to the Avila Hotel where he met with the local Rotary Club. I only stayed long enough to get a nice group photo and then raced home to download photos and do a little work on them as they had to be sent to a local paper in Holland ASAP!
So that’s about it, I am being picked up again in a few minutes to go back to the Avila for another photo shoot and will be there the rest of the evening.
Your photo is of a beautiful crab I found the other morning at Saint Joris. He was really defensive and quite aggressive so I kept my distance and just watched as he crawled around in the mud, I looked for a name but so far haven’t found one.
Till tomorrow, Barry
04-27-2009
Apr 12, 09 Comments Off
 blue-hermit-crab Hi friends, how was your Easter Sunday?? Ours started at 5:30 with a challenging “follow the clues to your Easter basket game”! I photographed 24 items in plain sight with a macro lens so only showing part of the object and one by one she had to find them. I thought this would be easy and even had clues written on the back of each photo but it turns out it was a bit to difficult so I helped her thru it. After 30 minutes of following clues she opened the dishwasher to find her little Easter present. Then it was my turn, I only had to search but geez was it ever well hidden, I guess it goes to show we are never to old for the good o’l Easter bunny.
At 7:00 I took the dogs on an hour and a half walk around the World Cup race course. I carried a rake and broom and did some much needed maintenance while the dogs kept guard keeping me safe from all the scary lizards.
At 9:30 I loaded up the car with my underwater camera and snorkel gear and took off by myself back to Canoa. I wanted to check the tidal pool again and see if the little cowfish were still around? When I arrived the low tide was just starting and would be at it lowest by noon so I had to get moving, if it gets too low I have no water to even float in. I ended up snorkeling there for three hours never leaving the water once! I never found the baby cowfish but found this little baby blue hermit crab instead. What’s really cool about this shot other than the crab to shell ratio is that this shell is only found on land! So at some point it washed into the sea and this little guy claimed it as his home, really cool huh?? The shell is less than a half of an inch long just to give you an idea of how tiny this little guy is. I was completely shocked at how well he was able to maneuver this big shell, I mean talk about a load on your back! I had a wonderful time floating around taking pictures today one breath at a time. Remember the red warty anemone picture I sent to you the other day? Well today he was closed and looked so different I may send that to you as well.
For those of you who have ever been caught in the shower without any shampoo and wondered if your dogs shampoo would work, it does! And not only does it work it’s fantastic! It was some kind of Hertz brand with oatmeal, it smelled great and left my coat shiny clean!!
I just got home for an hour and a half of mountain biking, it was the first ride since I have started riding again that I felt a noticeable differnce in my condition.
Dinners ready gotta run, see you tomorrow, Curacao regards, Barry
04-12-2009
Mar 27, 09 Comments Off
 Buried-Crab Good evening from one very tired man! After doing two deep dives to the Superior Producer and taking the dogs to the ocean for two hours I have had it!
Here’s a fun shot from my night dive last night with my macro lens. This is by far the tiniest crab I have ever found! I was laying on the sand just waiting for some friends to finish what they were doing when out of the corner of my eye I saw something move. As I looked closer I still couldn’t see it until I zoomed in with the 105 macro. This little crab was in a beautiful little olive shell but seconds after he noticed my presence he buried his shell in the sand by moving it back and forth and also used his arms to help with the digging. After about 20 seconds the shell was gone he had pushed it under the sand leaving only his body resting on top. As I continued to watch he then just sat there completely motionless, talk about blending in?? As for an approximate size, he and his shell would have fit inside your smallest finger nail!
Just a “heads up” to all my faithful readers, in a few short weeks I will stop sending this daily blog out as an e-mail. Settle down, relax, everyone take a deep breath and continue reading. Soon I will have my daily blog on my website right on the front page, so all you have to is go there and read it at your leisure. The address will be www.coralreefphotos.com The easiest thing to do will be to open coralreefphotos, right click somewhere on the page and “create a shortcut” to your desktop or save it as your favorites folder. We are talking about still sending you an e-mail out once a week just as a reminder and a quick run-down of the weeks activities, I think your going to love it.
Many of you always ask if my photos are for sale, everything is available thru www.wildhorizons.com and if your out and about shopping pick up the new issue of Sport Diver, it again has some of my photos in it this month, I’ll let you find them!
I smell something yummy, see you tomorrow, Barry
03-15-2009
Mar 12, 09 Comments Off
 Hermit Crab in a Vase Sponge Good evening my cyber friends. Have any of you ever had to start your vehicle with a can of starting fluid?? Well the reason I ask is when I was at work yesterday one of our construction guys was trying to start the old Sea Aquarium pick-up truck that is used for just about everything! Instead of starting fluid he grabbed a can of bug killer, opened the hood and spayed it into the carburetor?? It was just plain o’l roach/ant killer and with a turn of the switch it started right up! I think the look on my face said it all, I just stood there in shock. I asked how’s that possible? They told me that the ingredients are almost the same as a can of starting fluid and it’s ten times cheaper, crazy huh, give it a try I bet it works! Aimee and I started this fine day with a two hour walk with the dogs, ha you thought I was going to say three hour walk huh? After we got our dive gear together and took off to Caracas Bay in search of squids which we never did find. Aimee did find this beautiful crab having lunch at the “Open Sponge Cafe” and called me over to check him out. He was just sitting there in his very mossed over shell munching away at little bits of alga and could have cared less about our presence, normally they are very shy and are only seen at night. We found so many scorpionfish today including one baby one that we took photos of using the magnifying glass, it’s pretty cool! The water is still freezing cold, like 79 degrees, we were both very chilled by the end of the dive. It’s still raining in Curacao! We are now on our fifth month of rain, I was going to go riding but was unable to after our last down-pour at 4:00. Many thanks for all the great compliments they really help to keep me going! Till tomorrow, Barry 03-12-2009 Mar 12, 09 Comments Off
 Pederson-Shrimp Good morning, I got caught up in the movie “Fracture” last night on HBO, great movie but after I had no energy left to be on the computer. I again had a busy day starting with yes, you guessed it a three hour trip to the ocean with the dogs. I am still working on my “shoe tree”, collected another 100 flip-flops yesterday and piled them next to my tree just need to tie them on. While I was there I decided to pick up a pile of nice driftwood that Aimee had hidden for me up high on a cliff a few weeks back. I got it all loaded in our big dive bag and attempted to lift in onto my back, it was heavy! The first step I took I slipped on some loose rock and down I went rolling down the side of the cliff alongside the waters edge landing with my butt stuck into a big barrel cactus, ouch!! I just laid their motionless on my side still with the 40pound pack on trying to pull the cactus loose from my body, I was stuck to it! Inca came running down and started licking my face as if to say it’s going to all right, never seen her do that before she seemed really concerned! Well after getting the pack off I managed to stand back up, I then had to strip down (not a pretty sight) and slowly pull out spines one by one, I think I got them all it feels better this morning. After about 30 minutes of crying like a baby I got myself and the wood back to the car, I let Inca drive home! Your photo is a little Pederson cleaner shrimp sitting on a nice purple anemone, found this on my last trip to Small Wall with Mark. These little shrimps are everywhere and always a joy to photograph and if your real still may venture over to check you out. Very tired this morning from more trail cleaning last night followed by another bike ride. I also spent three hours yesterday working on our new table, this baby’s gonna be heavy! Talk to you tomorrow, I have to get to work, Barry 03-10-2009 Jan 19, 09 Comments Off
 deep-water-hermit-crab Good evening folks, this is going to be short. This is the beautiful little hermit crab that was found at depths below 500 feet!! I obviously can’t find him in any books but am still searching for a name? I love his blue eyes and white stripe on his eye shaft, he’s really a beautiful little creature. The rock I set him on here was full of tasty little things to eat and he stayed here the whole time never moving. I went and checked on him today he is still doing well which is amazing considering the great depth he came from? So once again we are all lucky to get to see something that very few have ever seen, hope you like it.
My day was very quiet other than a trip with the dogs to Saint Joris. We joined Kaya and gave her lots of hugs, still can’t believe they found her, that is really amazing! I am off to bed, busy day tomorrow, Barry
01-19-2009
Dec 31, 08 Comments Off
 Juvenile-hermit-crab Good evening friends, this will be my last blog of the year! But fear not I shall return in 2009 will hopefully many more new and wonderful images from our life in Curacao on land and underwater! Without sounding like a broken record I want to thank everyone again for everything!! Does that make any sense? You know who you are, Tom in Tucson, our Aunt Shari, my Mom, Mike and Jean at Ikelite, our friends in Rapid City, Nancy and Donley Darnell, Aimee’s family, my Boulder and Denver friends and everyone else that has been there for us in one way or another, you guys are the best and we could not have done this adventure without your support! We had a great year!! The fireworks have been going all day and are getting louder as I type, Inca has crawled under the table and is at my feet, she hates this noise. We are walking up the street just a block away to a friends house at 9:00 for a New Years party, not sure I will make it till midnight but will try??
You photo is another from my last night dive with Missy, Aimee’s sister. This is another micro 1/8th inch crab I found running across the sand at night. This little thing was so small that I could hardly see him, I had to let the camera’s auto focus do all the work and pray for the best. Our friend and advisor Tom suggested that these little crabs are just babies of the bigger ones we see all the time but one never sees these as they are so small? Works for me!
The noise has really increased outside, better go check it out!! Have a safe New Year, talk to you next year, Barry and Aimee
12-31-2008
Dec 29, 08 Comments Off
 tiny-hermit-crab Good morning, as you already guessed I was too busy last night to get my daily out but fear not here it is. Right after work yesterday we loaded up the dive gear and went to our favorite dive spot in front of “the Dive Bus” at Pier Baai for a night dive with Missy. While we took off into the water Aimee’s parents got a table on the beach at Surf and Turf and had kind of a front row seat getting to watch us do our thing. We jumped in around 7:00, this was Missy’s first night dive and she did great! No more than two seconds after going under I spotted a flounder buried in the sand with just his eyes poking out and next an octopus just sitting on a rock watching us. This was to be the evening of finding all kinds of tiny small new crabs, for some reason they were everywhere? I was hoping to get help with finding out the name of this mega tiny 1/4th inch crab? I know I have a lot of smart divers out there so please send me his name if you know it, we couldn’t find him in the books? Aimee asked me “how in the world did you ever spot that thing”? I was swimming inches above the reef very slowly and saw this tiny “something” move! I turned around, had to relocate him again and found a place in the sand to lay to steady the camera. He was so small but so cool, this is one of three different crabs I found last night. We also found a one inch starfish at the exit. In all the dives here we have only seen one other starfish like this one so it was pretty exciting, I will send that as well. The whole dive lasted around an hour, Missy and Aimee had a great time together and stuck together like glue the whole dive. I think it was Missy that found a giant coral crab and a beautiful parrotfish sleeping in a sponge bowl, had the wrong lens for that shot! After the dive we joined the parents on the beach for dinner, it was perfect ending to a great night dive!
See you tomorrow, Curacao regards, Barry
12-29-2008
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